Through the Day
by Beff
Summary: Alphabetical shorts on random shinobi musings.
1. Anaphylactic Shock

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>Genma flinched as the senbon harpooned it's way down in to his thigh. Raidou had taken the advantage of the over-extended Sound nin and had neatly decapitated him, but the damage had already been done.<p>

He dropped to one knee, hands supporting himself as his body suddenly seemed to turn into mush. Breathing suddenly seemed to take far more effort than he ever remembered before, and his ears filled with a crashing roar.

His partner pushed him up and shook him violently once, pulling the senbon out with a swift tug. He sniffed it, eyes dark.

"Stay with me, Genma," he demanded as he pulled him into a rough fireman's carry. "Stay awake."


	2. Benign

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>Inuzaka Hana walked slowly down the street of the Mist town, one of her dogs by her side. Her face was for once free of any distinguishing clan markings, and was framed by her unbound hair, tangling in the gentle breeze.<p>

Basket draped across her arm, she took her time as she made her way slowly through the market stalls, picking up a few random vegetables and a bushel-full of information on the local political scene.


	3. Complimentary

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>Tenten shifted, bumping lightly against Hayate's back.<p>

His katana was held at the ready.

She had a weapon scroll in each hand, ready to summon as many kunai and shuriken as she would need.

The bandits they were pursuing circled, unaware that they were facing both a short-range and a long-range weapons masters.

"Ready?" Hayate murmured.

He felt more than heard her acknowledgement.

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><p>Yes, I know at no point in canon could this have happened. Tough :3<p> 


	4. Deserter

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>The ANBU team circled the panting runaway, parting only to allow the Hunter passage. The cloaked shinobi ignored them, focused only weary figure before him.<p>

The runaway jerked as a katana embedded itself into the ground, just within arms reach. He looked up, eyes flashing.

The Hunter bowed his head, his mask shrouded in the shadows cast by the trees.

Drawing himself up straight, the runaway bowed his head, reaching for the katana.

Seconds later, and it was done. The Hunter sheathed his kunai and stooped to retrieve his katana, pausing only to wipe the blood from the blade onto the grass.

_Red __really __does __clash __with __green_, he thought idly as he prepared the incineration jutsu for the body.


	5. Eccentric

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>All shinobi had <em>quirks<em> – it was nearly part of the job description.

Kakashi would stop every morning to talk to Obito, dead all these years. In the evenings, he would have coffee with Mr. Ukki – pouring some onto the plant's roots, discussing the day's events.

Genma can knit, and does so to relieve stress. He's hooked the end of some of his senbon to work as crochet needles, much to Raidou's amusement.

Izumo can't swim. He nearly drown on a mission to Mist as a genin, and despite years of lessons with Iruka and Kotetsu, he can barely tread water.

Kotetsu sucks his thumb.

Asuma sings in the shower. Loudly. His neighbors once reported him for noise violations. "Sounded like he was skinning a cat," they said.

Speaking of cats, Hana is allergic to them.

Iwashi is afraid of heights – traveling through trees can be enough to put him into an anxiety attack.

Tonbo suffers from arachnophobia. He once had to send one of his summoned rats over to Hayate's for an emergency rescue.

Anko snores. Loudly. So loud that she can't be sent on recon missions.

Ibiki refuses to admit that he's afraid of the dark. The last person to mention his Hello Kitty nightlight is still on deployment to the Land of Snow.


	6. Faith

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>Faith was all a shinobi had, in the end.<p>

Faith to his village.

Faith to his Hokage.

Faith to his teammates.

Faith to his family.

Yamato bit into his lip as the Kuso nin broke another of his fingers. "Answer my questions," he demanded as the bones grated together.

Stilling himself with a deep breath, the jounin opened his eyes and smiled at the shinobi towering above him. His team would come back for him.

He had faith.


	7. Genius

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

Congrats, you get two shorts for this one, semi-related. Can't really decide which one I like better, although I'm not entirely happy with each.

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><p>Genius.<p>

It's a dirty word, at the Academy. The elder, more experienced teachers never use it, have it excised from their vocabulary. It's a dangerous word.

Iruka used it once, his first week as a sensei. It had been used thoughtlessly, not intended to have any connotations attached to it. "Well done, Hitomi! That was a genius way of solving the problem!"

His supervising sensei had almost immediately pulled him out of the classroom, his face pale. "Umino-san, this is not a word we use here," he chided, no real anger in his words, only a sense of tiredness.

Iruka was puzzled. "What did I say, Sensei?"

"They can be clever, Iruka. They can be smart, witty, intelligent. Being a _genius_," the older man almost sneered the word, "will get them dead before they hit puberty."

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><p>Three geniuses from Konoha.<p>

Three tragedies.

Hatake Kakashi's genius accomplished little in his early life, save the death of his first true friend. He carried that guilt until his dying day, never really recovering emotionally from that loss. Being a "genius" led those around him to believe he could cope without outside intervention.

Uchiha Itachi was a genius. He was the youngest ANBU captain Konoha had ever had, and some of the skills he learned from them he used in the slaughter of his own clan.

Hyuuga Neji was the last one to be called a genius at the Academy. The young teacher who told him that he was quickly realized what he had said, and was replaced by a substitute for the rest of the day; he was inconsolable. The news of the slip traveled quickly, and the Academy sensei worried for the fate of the stoic young man.


	8. Hematoma

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>Asmua groaned as he sank bonelessly into the chair that Genma vacated for him. Around them, the bar ebbed and flowed like the tide, but the ninja seemed to form their own cove.<p>

Genma slid over a pint glass of an indeterminate liquid; Asuma gulped half of it down before leaning back. The tokubetsu rolled his senbon from one corner of his mouth to the other. "Rough day?"

The jounin nodded, wiping the foam from his upper lip. "Chouji wanted to show the team some of his family's techniques."

"Didn't go well?"

Asuma pushed his chair back and pulled up his pant leg. The revealed leg was nearly black from bruising, except the edges, where the blue of burst blood vessels were still distinct. "My entire body looks like this. Kurenai's going to be pissed."

Genma swallowed, nearly choking on his forgotten senbon as he quickly shut his gaping mouth. "How- I mean- _How?_"

Another gulp, and a sigh. "Chouji accidentally sat on me."


	9. Ignorance

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

This was stuck in my head and wouldn't leave me alone.

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><p>The Academy's curriculum had refined over the years, each successive graduating class being just a bit better than the one prior.<p>

It started off as being something as trivial as graduation age. Instead of 8 year-olds graduating, the age was slowly pushed back to 11. It wasn't the quality of students deteriorating – it was actually an improvement in the political situation of their world.

Then it was more advanced techniques being taught. Without the need to push out barely-trained students, teachers could now teach more advanced chakra control exercises. Basic jutsu were added, as well. No longer were the graduation requirements limited to "walk, talk, and throw kunai" – now basic henges were required.

The final addition major addition was never publicized to the public, although it was privately well received by the ninja population. Basic home economics were added – basic cooking, budgeting, and the like. Instead of collectively subsisting on ramen and takeout bento, students could make their own stirfries, _without_ the danger of setting their apartment on fire. Of course, the increased survival age (from a mere 19 years, 3 months, 17 and a half days to 31 years, 8 months, 15 and a quarter days, assuming active-duty, non-ANBU) was a major factor, but again, survival rates would never be a matter for public consumption.

Iruka sighed as Moegi poured what he knew to be far too much wasabi paste into the wok. Who would have guessed that the little girl, who could recite eleven different ways to kill a person with a spoon, would be so hopelessly lost in a kitchen?


	10. Jargon

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>"The silver-pawed monkey resides on the ever-sandy beach."<p>

_The target lives where we suspected._

"Light through the leaves, but nothing seems to bother."

_He lives alone. Wow, Intel right on two counts. Must be our lucky day._

"Suffer not the heretic to live, for the kingdom of the jackalope will be at hand upon the dawn."

_We need to move soon, the housekeeper will be around soon._

Aoba palmed his own microphone.

"The one who sees nothing, yet knows all shall dance amongst the cherry blossoms, come the break of night."

_Let's get this over with._


	11. Kinetic Energy

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

Some of this is shamelessly taken from wikipedia, apologies.

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><p>Genma glared at the class in front of him. He didn't give a damn that they were all out of the Academy, with a smattering of all the ranks present. He didn't give a damn that this was only a three hour session. Why the hell hadn't the Nara kid been volunteered to do this?<p>

He glared at the garbled words he had written on the chalkboard, realization dawning that no one in the room could read his cramped script. _Crap_.

He took a deep breath. "The kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion. Having gained energy during its acceleration, a body will maintain it's kinetic energy unless its speed changes. The same amount of work is done by the body in decelerating from its current speed to a state of rest. Practically, kinetic energy can be passed from one object to another, via elastic collisions."

He glared at the room, purposely focusing on a snickering Izumo in the back. "Someone, give me a real world example of kinetic energy."

Izumo chortled louder as no one spoke up. Genma smirked around his senbon, a malicious glint appearing in his eye.

Half a moment later, the senbon was sticking out of Izumo's shoulder, and the chuunin was, thanks to his wheeled office chair, sailing out of the conference room and towards the stair well.

A Hyuuga looked up from a notepad. "Do we all get a practical test on this?"

Genma grinned, pulling another senbon from his hip pouch. Maybe this class wouldn't be so bad after all.


	12. Luck

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>No ninja would willingly admit to believe in it. <em>Luck<em>, they would laugh, _who__needs__it?__Ninja__don__'__t__need__luck__ – __everything__is__based__on__skills,__on__practice,__on__countless__repetition_. The Academy senseis would echo this, insisting that, when everything came right down to it, every variable must be accounted for.

They knew they were lying. They knew that there were moments that a slight misstep by their opponent, their delaying just a moment, that _lucky_ act might have been the only thing to have saved them. They wouldn't admit to it's existence aloud, but they all knew things would be drastically different without it.

Kakashi believes in it. Luck had made him thing to put on his arm guards that one day. It had been raining heavily, and he had scooped Pakkun up into his arms to keep him from wallowing in the deep mud. Luck had seen to it that the Kuso-nin's shuriken had reflected off the arm guard, and not embedded itself into his pug.

Iruka believes in it, especially after the day one of his students had grabbed his father's poisoned senbon set and bought it to school for target practice. Luck (and the slight weight difference) had sent the tainted ones into the ground instead of into a crowd of students.

Hana believes in it, after one long courier run out to Suna. Luck had sent the broken tree limb falling just ahead of one of her dogs – right before he was about to step onto a beartrap.

Kurenai believes in it, and whispers those beliefs to her swelling belly. _I was lucky to have known your father and to have had him for the time that I did,_ she'd confide, late at night, in the lonely solitude of her bed.

Shikamaru believes in it, too. He bows formally as he arrives at Kurenai's door, ready to escort her wherever she needs to go. He was lucky to have known Asuma as well, lucky that his sensei had seen him make jounin. He hoped his luck would continue to hold, so that he could see the soon-to-be-born child make his father proud.


	13. Morals

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

Why am I writing all this the day before NaNoWriMo? Because I hate myself.

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><p>They're transient, fleeting.<p>

Different to each.

Impossible to teach at the Academy.

You either know them or you don't.

Just because yours are different from the person next to you, doesn't necessarily make either of you a bad person.

Some are deep rooted, indelible.

Others vary on the eye of the beholder.

What is one thing in Suna might be something completely different in Kuso.

It varied between residents of Konoha, as well.

Civilians had strong opinions (right or wrong, did it matter?) on them, and periodically stood up during parent/teacher conference to spout them.

Shinobi parents would sit back, fold their arms, and assume a bored look. They had heard the arguments before. They didn't matter.

But they did.

Reflection on them – _belief_ in them – would oftentimes keep a borderline ninja from breaking.


	14. Neurosis

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

Feel free to comment any time now, duders.

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><p>Sakura closed the book in front of her and stood up, pushing her chair in. The library was otherwise silent as she left, book under her arm.<p>

Making her way towards the tower, she pondered her reading. She would definitely have to ask Tsunade about the last article she had read.

She waved at Izumo and Kotetsu, undoubtedly on their way out to the gate for their normal duty shift. They waved back, then resumed the shoving match they were in, apparently over who Anko had winked at.

Biting her lip, she rounded the corner and nearly ran into Kakashi. He waved at her, his nose buried deep in his orange-covered book. His eyes never left it as he headed down towards the market district, yet he managed to not once walk into anything. He even managed to catch a melon that a civilian had dropped before it hit the ground, handing it back to her without even a twitch of his eyes.

Sakura continued her musings, making her way to the Tower and up to her Sensei's office. The door was opened a crack already, and she stepped through silently, adjusting the book under her arm. Tsunade nodded her acknowledgement of her entry, then continued her conversation with the ANBU operative before her.

The operative, a tall, heavy-set man with a vaguely avian mask, kept nodding in all the right places, his left hand idly on his hip while his right hand stroked the pommel of his kodachi. A few moments later, the conversation ended, and the man was gone with only a wisp of smoke betraying that he had been present.

Sakura stepped forward, flipping open her book to the article she had bookmarked. Setting it down on the desk, she looked at the older woman. "Sensei, how I can I pick just one person to focus on with this, when it seems like every ninja in this village suffers from it?"

Tsunade smiled, pulling her desk drawer open to reveal a jug of sake and a saucer. "Sakura, you've just passed that portion of my teaching. That was exactly the conclusion I wanted you to come to."

The chuunin merely glared as her Sensei downed her first serving of sake. _Speaking __of __neurosis__…_


	15. Obscure

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

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><p>Asuma grumbled, convinced that he was carrying half of Rain with in him in the form of mud. Few things irritated him more than mud between his toes, and he was well convinced that his sandals were now a lost cause.<p>

He slogged up the stairs to Kurenai's apartment, plastic shopping bag in hand, grumbling. Aoba passed him on the stair case, grinning at the wet trail left behind him, an ill-suppressed look of unadulterated _smug_ on his face. Asuma glared.

He would never had agreed to the entire pregnancy thing if he had known that the only kind of pickles Kurenai would eat were from Rain.


	16. Prude

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters. That, and it's time for NaNoWriMo. r/r please.

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><p>Izumo stumbled backwards out of the locker room, hands out before him in the universal gesture for "oh sweet Kami stay away I didn't mean it."<p>

"I didn't mean it!" he kept repeating as a mantra, eyes clenched so hard that tears leaked out of the corners. "I'm so very sorry, please, please forgive me for the indiscretion." His words become an inane babble, inarticulate as he sank towards the realm of hyperventilation.

Hana leaned against the door jam, arms crossed over her chest, clad only in a towel. She grinned toothily as her fellow chuunin cowered in a fear she had never seen before.

Her mother peered over her shoulder, her towel haphazardly slung over her shoulders, leaving everything else bare. "What's your issue?" she asked the prostrate man.

Izumo began to babble his apology again, his eternal sorrow for walking into the wrong locker room, until Tsume quieted him.

"Pup, they're called breasts. You have them too. Mine are just better."

Izumo chose this moment to open his eyes, only to find himself eye level with Tsume's unmentionables.

She laughed as he passed out, wondering how a ninja could be such a prude.


	17. Quiche

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

That, and its NaNoWriMo time. R/R please.

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><p>Tenten peered over Temari's shoulder as the taller woman pulled the steaming pan from the oven. Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Anko, and Kurenai had taken over the living room and were engrossed in some board game Anko had found.<p>

"Er, it looks pretty good," Tenten looked warily at the pan. She stuck a spoon into it, only to pull it back quickly when it seemed to quiver at the touch.

The blond looked shocked. "You mean to tell me you don't know what this is? It's a Sand specialty, you're lucky!"

"But what is it?"

A sigh. "It is the most delectable combination of spinach, mushrooms, ham, and cheese that your pathetic mind can think of. This is _quiche_."

Tenten poked it with the spoon again as Anko came into the kitchen, intrigued by the commotion. She immediately was drawn to the still-steaming pan.

"What is _that_? Looks like someone yakked and then baked it."

The board game ended quickly after that.


	18. Religion

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

That, and its NaNoWriMo time. R/R please.

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><p>Ibiki only went to the Memorial Stone late at night.<p>

It wasn't that he was ashamed, far from it. The people enshrined therein exemplified how he wanted to live and die: for his family, for his comrades, for his village.

It was more that he viewed the Memorial Stone as a religious experience, akin to visiting a shrine. It was one of the most personal moments in his routine, one that he was loath to share with others.

The Stone itself was never meant to be a religious monument. It was just meant to offer a place for the remembrance of those whose bodies would never be returned to their village. Shinobi bodies rarely made it home, and even rarely in a condition that allowed for traditional funerals.

Whatever the original intention for it, to some (notably most ninja), the Stone had become almost a religious place over the years. Flowers and offerings were left, memorial services held, and Hatake Kakashi held what amounted to a séance with his dead team on a daily basis.

To Ibiki, it bought a profound sense of peace.

Every time one of his people didn't come home, every time another one was reported as KIA, he would make a pilgrimage to the Stone. Alone, under the stars, he would painstakingly use the single Stone Village jutsu he knew, and would carve the lost one's name into the Memorial. He would talk, as he did, to himself, and to the spirits that he suspected congregated. He would speak at length of his fears, his hopes, his dreams, his sorrows, and his apologies. In the chill moonlight, he would seek forgiveness and solace for his sins.

As the head of Torture and Interrogation, Kame knew he had enough of those.

But, on those nights he sat in the shadow of the stone, he ensured that those who had lost their lives in protecting Konoha, and him, by proxy, were remembered.


	19. Saccadic

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

That, and its NaNoWriMo time. R/R please.

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><p>Tsunade ran down the line of triage beds, coming to stop at the one Kakashi was on. The surrounding doctors fled after one look in her face, vanishing like a threatened school of fish.<p>

His eyes were clenched closed, but she didn't have the time to feel bad about causing him pain by pulling the lid covering the Sharingan open.

The red eye spasmed as she watched, the pupil twitching and quaking. Her heart dropped in terror, but she covered it. She _had_ to.

"Prep a bag of saline now!" she yelled, making a break for the nearest sink to scrub up.

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><p>Oh god this one was hard.<p> 


	20. Taboo

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

That, and its NaNoWriMo time. R/R please.

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><p>Ninja didn't generally believe in taboos.<p>

As masters and bringers of death, chaos and fear, it would be hypocritical, at least, to care about trivial things. _Don't sweat the big stuff, _the elders would say.

Piercings? So what? Big deal. As long as they didn't catch in your weaponry, no real ninja cared about a few extra holes here and there. At least they didn't bleed like the other ones they were prone to getting unintentionally. That, and if a piercing could hold a poison or an antidote, or double as a weapon, then more power to it.

Tattoos? ANBU tattooed their members for identification of bodies. All bonded Inuzakas had tattoos as well, symbolizing their bonds with their dogs. The Hyuuga clan brought it into a gray area with their sealing of the Branch Family, but that was an internal issue. Most ninja had a tattoo or two somewhere on their person, mostly remnants of bonding with friends.

Sex? Sure. Where and when? That was the general ninja consensus. Those who were considered over the hill by thirty stopped caring about who they fell into bed with early in their careers. Who cared about gender? A shinobi back from a rough mission wouldn't care about who wrapped their arms around them, or let them cry into their shoulder. The person commiserating with them _knew_ what was wrong, and that was all that mattered.

Shinobi were many, many things.

Hypocrite was rarely on the list.


	21. Unity

A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.

That, and its NaNoWriMo time. R/R please.

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><p>Iwashi was pretty mellow, all things told.<p>

Then again, for ninja, "mellow" was quite subjective.

When he was assigned the courier mission all the way out to Mist, he shrugged, whatever. A mission was a mission.

When he was told he was going to have a partner for it, he shrugged, whatever. A two-man mission was more tolerable than a solo.

Then he found out who his partner was.

Anko.

He literally face-palmed at the mission desk. The second loudest ninja in all of Konoha, and he gets saddled with her for a stealth courier mission. Swell.

But he said nothing about his displeasure as they left through the north gates of Konoha.

He said nothing as she peered at their map, trying to find the most circumspect way into Mist.

He said nothing as they raced through the forest.

Nothing needed as they realized they had picked up a tail, a shared glance telling the other all they needed to know.

He said nothing as she signed a plan to him in scout sign.

He said nothing as she body-checked him away from an attack he didn't see, and took the shuriken that would have crashed into his gut in her side and shoulder.

He said nothing as he calmly eliminated the threat.

He said nothing as he extended a hand to help her up.

Nothing really needed to be said.


End file.
